March 6 – 12: Lao National Assembly Chairwoman visits Vietnam

Vietnamese NA Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan and her Lao counterpart Pany Yathotou their talks in Hanoi on March 6

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NDO – A Nhan Dan selection of notable events which occurred over the past week.

Lao National Assembly Chairwoman visits Vietnam

Chairwoman of the Lao National Assembly (NA) Pany Yathotou and a parliamentary delegation paid an official visit to Vietnam from March 5 - 10 at the invitation of her counterpart Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan.

During the trip, the parliamentary delegations of Vietnam and Laos had talks. The countries’ top legislators witnessed the signing of a cooperation agreement between the two NAs and another between the two NA Offices for 2017-2021.

The Lao delegation paid cordial visits to Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and President Tran Dai Quang, and met with Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc. Pany Yathotou also co-chaired a workshop on management decentralisation at central and grassroots levels in Laos and Vietnam.

At the meetings, the two sides considered Yathotou’s visit as a contribution to the special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation between the two Parties, States and NAs. They agreed to enhance coordination to effectively carry out cooperation documents, programmes and plans.

12th National Women’s Congress opens in Hanoi

Delegates at the opening ceremony of the 12th National Women’s Congress in Hanoi on March 7

The 12th National Women’s Congress, themed “Solidarity – Renovation – Equality – Integration” opens in Hanoi on March 7, bringing together 1,155 outstanding women representing all walks of life in addition to different ethnic groups, religions and regions nationwide.

The three-day Congress focused its discussion on relevant policy recommendations, improving the efficiency of social supervision and criticism, and operations of the Vietnam Women’s Association (VWA) chapters at the grassroots level.

It set three key tasks of assisting women in building happy families, start-ups, economic development, and environmental protection; engaging them to make contributions to building the Party and administration, social supervision and criticism; and stepping up people-to-people diplomacy.

The high-level meeting for the Euro-Asia region on improving cooperation on transit, trade facilitation and the 2030 agenda for sustainable development took place in Hanoi on March 7.

Jointly held by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the United Nations Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS), the meeting had six discussions on a range of issues on transit, trade facilitation and implementation the 2030 Agenda.

The event also sought measures to promote cooperation in customs among landlocked and transit nations, and creating favourable conditions for trade and investment as well as construction of trans-national transit systems and attract more investment in building necessary bilateral and multilateral legal frameworks in the field.

Government approves project on combating illegal trade in endangered species

The Prime Minister has recently approved in principle the project on preventing and combating illegal trade in endangered species of wild fauna and flora.

The project aims to help Vietnam stop the illegal trade of wild animals and plants by identifying gaps in the current policy and law; as well as proposing to competent authorities to amend and supplement the legal documents.

The project is scheduled to be implemented from 2017 to 2021 nationwide, of which US$10 million funded by the USAID and over VND11.1 billion of the Vietnamese Government’s counterpart fund.

Viettel ranked second in ASEAN Top 20 telecom brands

Viettel has been ranked second on a list of the most valuable telecommunications brands in Southeast Asia in 2017, compiled by the UK-based Brand Finance, which specializes in brand valuation and valuations of intangible assets.

The military-run telecom group’s value increased to US$2.686 billion in 2017, jumping up five spots from the seventh position in 2016 to rank second in 2017.

Telkom Indonesia led the Brand Finance rankings with a value of US$4.335 billion, followed by Singtel (Singapore), with US$2.625 billion, Axiata (Malaysia) with US$2.583 billion, and PLDT (Philippines) with US$1.854 billion.

Exhibition displays Japanese cherry blossoms

As many as 50 cherry blossom trees and 12,000 branches of cherry blossoms, plus some traditional flowers of Vietnam are on display at the Ly Thai To Flower Garden in Hanoi under the Japanese Cultural Exchange 2017 and Japanese Cherry Blossom Exhibition that opened on March 10.

The annual event aims to promote Japanese cherry blossoms to the people of the Vietnamese capital city, while offering a chance for people of both countries to exchange experiences and cooperation in the field of culture, tourism and economy between Hanoi and Japan.

A photo exhibition, traditional art performances and drum performances by Japanese artists were also held during the three-day event.

Dak Lak: Buon Ma Thuot coffee festival opens

A performance at the opening of the 6th Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Festival. (Photo: VGP)

The 6th Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Festival opened on March 10 in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak, featuring about 1,000 local and foreign performers who brought to the stage a story about the history of the province and its ancient gong culture.

The festival included assorted cultural activities in various areas around Buon Ma Thuot, including a culinary street, a street festival, an elephant race, a boat race, and a wooden statue-carving contest with 60 artisans from the central province of Khanh Hoa and the Central Highlands region.

The fourth conference on investment promotion for the Central Highlands was held on March 11 in Buon Ma Thuot, drawing 500 representatives from local and international agencies. There was also a photo contest featuring local coffee culture and gong space culture as well as a coffee harvesting competition.

Vietnam among five Asian teams at FIFA U20 World Cup

The International Football Federation (FIFA) has closed the list of 24 teams to compete in the 2017 FIFA U20 World Cup, to be hosted by the Republic of Korea (ROK), with Vietnam among Asia’s five representatives.

The Asian and European regions are allocated five World Cup places each, while each of the remaining four regions are allocated four, of which, Asia will be represented by the ROK, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Japan and Iran.

As planned, U20 Vietnam will play three friendly matches in Germany against U19/U23 Borussia Mönchengladbach, U23 Schalke 04 and U19 Fortuna Düsseldorf.